Applied Mechanics Commons^™

The Influence Of Reynolds Number And Atmospheric Effects On Aircraft Wake Vortices Near The Ground, Zhongquan Charlie Zheng

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Aircraft wakes represent potential hazards which can control aircraft spacing and thus limit airport capacity. Wake vortex trajectories and strengths are altered radically by interactions with the ground plane and by atmospheric conditions. This work has been concerned with developing more accurate numerical predictions. A two-dimensional, unsteady numerical-theoretical study is presented which has included viscous effects, the influence of stratification, crosswind and turbulence on vortex behavior near the ground plane, using a vorticity-streamfunction formulation.

A two-parameter perturbation procedure has been developed which uses analytic solutions for the initial flow field to accommodate the ground effect region in the numerical simulation. …